Can someone PLEASE tell me what the HELL she was thinking when she bought this dress?
[EDIT:] Yeah, it was that hideous… They removed it… (post moved to side)
Tag Archive for 'miss_america'
I’ve got this problem/gift that haunts me to this very day.
Historically, when it came to intimate relationships with a certain gender, that isn’t mine, I’ve been able to see the future.
I know, I know, “impossible, no one can see the future!” You say. But I insist. Give me one, maybe two months, at the longest half a year, and I can tell you the very quality of the relationship that will have it ripping at the seams, given time. And thus far, I’ve never been wrong. Take Jen and I. I’ve got nothing… And you know what? Still strong after a year and a half.
But I’m not talking about certain significant others here. I’m talking about the Miss America Pageant.
A few days ago I blogged about a certain Reality TV show Miss America lowered themselves into recently, Miss America: Reality Check. Now, my gut instinct is to toss you a link to the show’s website, and I’m going to (you can find it here), but that’s not without a cacophony of protest from my better judgment.
By now you already know I am not a fan of the idea.
Take a piece of America’s history, an icon, if you will, and exploit it. Great idea. One of the toughest stereotypes for the Miss America Organization to overcome has been the idea that we are nothing more than a “Beauty Pageant,” it’s a struggle as old as time, and now TLC wants turn MAO into a reality TV show. So now, not only is it still a Beauty Pageant to most, but now it’s cliche.
But its not just that. Over the years the Miss America Pageant has remained primarily unchanged, largely unmolested by time. Timeless.
So what do we do? We take something that is Timeless and we make it better, we make it Modern. Brilliant.
One of the wonderful things about tradition, about “timelessness,” is if something is timeless, it can’t truly die. Something that is timeless exists in it’s own little world, it’s own bubble of protection. It’s the reason why nothing will beat the original Dracula. It can be remade and remade to high heavens, but we will always look back to the original for the inspiration, while remakes come and go with the wind.
Remakes, remasters, remixes can be forgotten. Sure, they can be popular for a time, but because they are “modern,” tailored to a generation, they are a fad, and fads fade when modern moves on.
Yet it gets worse. If Reality Check were one of a kind, without competition, it would at least thrive for a short time, a season or two in the lime-light. But we aren’t so lucky. Sure, we have the “original” thing going for us, but now we have to compete again (as if competing against Miss USA wasn’t bad enough), now we have Crowned pushing in on us.
So now we not only have to fight the stereotype of the Beauty Pageant, but heads with Miss USA, and conform to the Modern appeal, but now we have to bend over backwards to struggle for network TV ratings against a free form “pageant” that, unlike us, doesn’t have traditions or morals to consider in it’s programming.
Mark my words, this is the beginning of the end of the Miss America of old. This is the end.
Ok, I shoot for Miss Maine, sure. This, in and of it’s self, doesn’t mean I actually LIKE pageantry, or the pageantry world. Well, the stereotypes anyway. Because, anyone who’s had words with me on the subject knows very well that I actually DO like pageantry, and will defend it tooth and nail if I have to. Provided that by “pageantry” you talking about Miss America, and not Miss USA, Donald Trump’s… ish…
Enough with the sentence fragments; I like pageantry. That said, I just about shit myself when the executive director of Miss Maine asked me to post the following video on the Miss Maine front page.
“Audrey,” I said, after I got over my slack-jawed terror, “um… this doesn’t really… I don’t… get it.”
“Haha,” comes the voice of reason, “yeah, it’s a joke, they’re trying to make fun of-”
“US!” I exclaimed. “They did a good job, what is this all about?” I inquired, even more confused now than before I had called.
Wow, I am so glad you asked.
It’s hot and cold actually.
In one corner you have Intro to Algebra, which is a crap course. As a matter of fact, its SU’s fault I’m even in a math course (mine for what I chose…). Basically, NESCom needed me to get another Math credit, and I wasn’t about putting a whole lot of effort into something I didn’t really need to, plus, it fit with my schedule…
In the world of bad choices… Yeah. For those of you out there looking to head into college in the relatively near future, don’t simply pick easy courses. They lead you down the wonderful roads of self-mutilation, and earnest quests towards suicide…
Then you’ve got Copywriting, which, unlike Copyrighting, has a “W” in it, and falls in the “writing intensive” category.
Actually, for all its faults, it’s actually a great class (when I decide to write). Much better than Marketing, which falls dead betwixt the two (primarily the fault of the teacher IMHO). The class I can put hours into, and fail in comparison to those who bullshit moments before class…
So you have got those three on one side, with and Graphic Design I, Web Design I, and Scene Study one the other end, doing all they can to maintain the very foundation of my sanity. Continue reading ‘So, hows school, Mike?’
A-HA! I win!
After contacting technical support at that jack asses ISP it seems I got his attention. The NAMASP website has now fallen into obscurity and no longer has anything to do with the organization we once held so dear…
Tick that as a win for the little-guy.
As you may or may not know, when it comes to tech-things, I am pretty much the “man with the plan,” if you will. The go-to guy.
I’m no good at explaining things, or teaching for that matter, but tell me what you want and let me be. Usually I can get it done.
As such, when something goes wrong with a site I oversee, I get the brunt of it, and right now, I am hurting…
I am taking a break from witch-hunting right now to rest my brain a bit…
What you have here is what happens when you let a domain expire in todays world. It gets hijacked and turned into a portal for porn.
Well, we’re back. Actually, we have been back about a week now, and I’m still jet-lagged. We pulled in at about eleven o’clock last Tuesday night and I left my house at about twelve-thirty to get to school, sleep, and get to classes the next morning. It sure was fun.
As for the tip, all in all it was wonderful. Vegas is always fun, as usual. However, oddly, I didn’t get out nearly as much this year as I did last year. We did stay an extra week last year, but I also did a lot more in terms of meetings and rehearsals. This year I didn’t attend one single practice, as appose to last year when I attended each and every one. I didn’t go to any press conferences or meetings, save the very last one after Lauren Nelson was crowned Miss America 2007. And yet, despite my admittedly lax schedule, I only went out once, and even then it was only with Shari, my mother’s right-hand gal. Now, there isn’t anything wrong with Shari, I actually had a great time, but I was rather hopeing to get out with some folks my own age, which never really happened. I did hang out on the casino floor with Jr., and made sixty dollars to my fifty. Well… He did anyway. Hopefully I will be returning to hang out with him again. Other than that, I didn’t go to any clubs or bars, besides the frequently occasional drink here, there, and everywhere.
Maybe next year.
In regards to pictures, this year did go quite a bit better than last year. Last year around this time I was still trying to figure what do do with all of my photographs. I had some up on the Miss Maine website, but I hadn’t really done anything with the vast majority of them. It took me over a week and a half to get them on-line, and I lost a good bit of sales that way. This year, I was shooting for a “night-of” release time, which didn’t happen… However, I did quite well. It took me a day to get my keywords set-up, and to get another project out of the way, but 255 keywords later, I was cranking them out and on-line. In the end, I got Thursday nights shots up Saturday, and Friday and Saturday nights shots up Monday evening. The final night (Monday evening), with the crowning, didn’t get up until Wednesday evening… However, all of this was a learning experience.
So we arrived last night at about 6pm Vegas time, and what a city. I’ve been here once before, but I have this sinking feeling that it will never get old.
Wireless internet doesn’t work here in the rooms, but I heard rumors that the Press room and the convention hall both have open access, so we shall see.
I will be getting photographs up here shortly, once I get my camera charger… I left it in Bangor, and my roommates had to over-night it to Vegas for me. It should be in the Business Center right now. The battery lasted just long enough to finish off the Habitat for Humanity thing this afternoon, and now it is stone-cold dead. So if the charger didn’t come in, I’ll be joining it soon enough… 
So, once the camera is charged I will get some photos up for the lot of you to google at. Until then…
Actually, physically, heading out the door as I write this.
The next time you hear from me I will be in VEGAS BABY!
WOOT!
So I am finishing up packing… Heading to Vegas momentarily, but I need to vent real quick, you know, assuming I’m not being censored or anything…
Really, as excited as I am to be going to Vegas over this next week and shooting Miss America, and as much fun as I know I am going to have (well, pretty sure at least), I’m just about ready for it to be over already… I mean really, just how excited can one be to spend the week with chaps that wholly feel that:
“So stay tuned, if you know whats good for you. In the same fashion as last year, I will be posting nearly every step of the way, so expect something up at around 6pm tomorrow evening…”
(offending material)
needs be censored? Thats not my kind of crowd… Sorry…
I know, I know. Its a stupid little thing, but I assure you, its just the beginning. There’s going to be a whole SLEW of nitpicky things that one unnamed soul with stop at no ends to point out and command be rectified.
I honestly believe that, in todays society, all of this uptightedness is just one big misunderstanding. I can’t imagine that people honestly are as anal retentive as they think everybody else thinks they ought to be and are because of it. I mean, how can a person function like that?
Whatever, I’m going, and I am going to have a great time of it, and thats that. I’ll be blogging about it both here, and at the Miss Maine website. Also, photos will be up at some point, but I shall not disclose their location… yet. Check back later for such juicy details.
Peace!
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